Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese - musichttp://antiochian.org/taxonomy/term/1158/0
en-USHow the Sacred Music Institute Changed My Lifehttp://antiochian.org/node/25357
<div class="field field-type-text field-field-wordmag-author-0">
<div class="field-items">
<div class="field-item odd">
Kousaie, Venise </div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="field field-type-date field-field-word-date">
<div class="field-label">Magazine Date:&nbsp;</div>
<div class="field-items">
<div class="field-item odd">
<span class="date-display-single">03/2011</span> </div>
</div>
</div>
<!--paging_filter--><p><em>by Venise Kousaie</em></p>
<p>Imagine being appointed to a leadership role in your parish without knowing whether you are truly prepared or equipped to handle it.</p>
<p>Imagine that it is a position requiring specialized knowledge in liturgics, music theory, conducting, enunciation, pronunciation, vocal technique, byzantine tones and hymnology, teaching, and so forth. Imagine there is no one with all of these skills that you can talk to, because you really wouldn’t know where to begin to find the sources of all the information you need to be successful in your leadership role.</p>
<p>Early in my ministry as an Antiochian Orthodox Church Choir Director I found myself in precisely this situation. Although as a musician I had majored in voice and piano, there was a lot about directing a choir I needed to learn. As the result of a directive from His Eminence Metropolitan PHILIP, the opportunity came to attend the first-ever Sacred Music Institute (SMI) at the Antiochian Village in 1984. I didn’t know what to expect. I attended, believing that my faith would guide me to solutions. What I found in the hills of Pennsylvania shaped my sacred music ministry and my contribution to my parish, my diocese and the Archdiocese for the next 28 years. The courses I took at the SMI were given by a group of musicians and clergy who were experts in their respective professional fields, and the courses served to fill gaps in the knowledge I needed to be successful. There were music-school teachers, theologians, conductors and key-note speakers.</p>
<p>Each and every year upon returning to the SMI I would tap into this wealth of resources in sacred music and take away something new, whether it was new music to teach my choir at home, or conducting techniques, or a better understanding of the Byzantine tones and the order of the liturgical services.</p>
<p>I learned something each and every year! Over time, the Sacred Music Committee identified the strengths and talents of the participants, and I, too, have imparted my expertise to others.</p>
<p>No one person except Christ himself is all-encompassing. In the quest to make my contributions meaningful, I found the fountain from which knowledge flowed freely. It is hard to describe to someone what he or she would gain by attending the SMI, whether he or she is a choir director, a choir member, a chanter or a member of the clergy seeking musical support. The only way really to know, is to attend and experience the Grace of the Holy Spirit, take it back to your parish with you, and then come back for more spiritual and musical renewal each year.</p>
<p>In July 2010 the SMI celebrated twenty-five years of excellence in sacred music. The Department of Sacred Music has grown and developed, and so have I. I am grateful to His Eminence Metropolitan Philip for his vision in providing us with the Antiochian Village, without which I might never have made the connections that helped me grow in my ministry. I am also grateful to His Grace Bishop Basil, the overseer of the Department of Sacred Music, for his deep understanding of the role and challenges of church musicians. The SMI changed the course of my ministry in sacred music, and it can change yours too! I hope to see you at the next Sacred Music Institute, July 20–24, 2011.</p>
<p><strong><em>Venise Kousaie, Choir Director</em></strong><br /><em>St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church</em><br /><em>Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada</em></p>
<div class="field field-type-text field-field-wordmag-tag-1">
<div class="field-items">
<div class="field-item odd">
music </div>
</div>
</div>
articlemusicvenise kousaieThu, 24 Feb 2011 18:49:43 +0000afrishman25357 at http://antiochian.orgAuthentic Church Musichttp://antiochian.org/node/22682
<!--paging_filter--><p style="text-align: left;"><em>By Rev. John Finley, B.M., M.A., M.S.T.</em><em>&nbsp;</em></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><em>2002 Conference on Missions and Evangelism<br />The Gospel in Song: Music, Missions and Evangelism<br />August 30-September 02, 2002</em></p>
<p>Just as an authentic icon makes visible for us, the invisible Kingdom of God, so too, authentic Church music makes audible for us the inaudible song of the angels around the throne of God.</p>
<p>And just as an icon of Christ or the Theotokos differs in style from nation to nation, and from one century to the next, so too, a musical setting of a hymn to Christ or to His mother differs in style from nation to nation and from one century to the next.</p>
<p>Because we respect the tradition of the Church, and because we know that no culture or no era stands in isolation from another in Church History, we seek to develop Church art in a living continuity with the past, realizing however, that the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church to which we are united, is not simply the Church of the past, but also of the present and of the future.</p>
<p>Our Patriarch Ignatius IV commenting in his book <span style="text-decoration: underline;">The Resurrection and Modern Man</span> on the Apocalyptic verse "Behold, I make all things new" emphasizes that God comes into the world from the future.<a name="_ftnref1" href="#_ftn1">[1]</a> So, too, should our music, and iconography be made new from generation to generation, not in the sense of radical innovation or novelty, but new according to the renewal of the Holy Spirit in the Church. We must trust that the Holy Spirit will reveal the mind of the Church in every generation and in every nation as the faithful apply the great commission not only to the spread of the Orthodox faith in thought, word and deed, but also in Christian art.</p>
<p>Each nation and every generation must be taught and baptized. Every culture must be sanctified, and the effective missionary will find things already existing in the culture to illustrate the universality of the Gospel, just as St. Paul did at the altar of the unknown god (Acts 17:23) and the Russian missionaries with the native culture of Alaska.<a name="_ftnref2" href="#_ftn2">[2]</a></p>
<p>In our day and age, music abounds in so many forms. Church music abounds in many forms. Authentic Church music of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church abounds in expressions from other cultures, other nations, and previous generations. We know our roots, and because we live in America, we have to say "roots" and not "root" because we live in the melting pot of the world. Concerning the Church, it is no different. We live in the musical and iconographic melting pot of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.</p>
<p>There are forces at work, however, that would prevent us from baptizing our nation with the whole tradition that has been handed down to us. We have the Bible, the Liturgy, the Councils, the Fathers, the canons and the lives of the saints. All these things have been translated into English, so that we can read, study and worship in our own tongue. To a certain degree, our architecture, music and iconography remain in what might be called "cultural captivity".</p>
<p>Perhaps it is because art, more than any of these other aspects of our holy tradition, expresses our ethnic and nationalistic roots and our love for the fatherland. But what is the true fatherland? Is it not the kingdom of God not of this world, the age to come, the eschaton? It is this kingdom, which demands our ultimate loyalty and the culture of this kingdom, which we are called to preserve and protect.</p>
<p>Authentic Church music is music that helps us to pray, to worship God, to enter the heavenly Holy of Holies. Authentic Church music is Orthodox Church music. But when we say the word "Orthodox" what do we mean? Do we mean Church music that finds its root and expression in certain geographical areas of the world? Is Orthodox Church music limited to that music, which through the centuries has been developed in the great patriarchal, sees of Antioch, Jerusalem, Alexandria, Constantinople, and Rome? Should we add Moscow and Kiev, and throw out Rome because of the great schism? Is Orthodox Church music limited to Byzantine, Russian, Romanian, Serbian, Carpathian and Bulgarian?</p>
<p>How did the music of the Church in Russian become Russian? Since the faith was received from Ss. Cyril and Methodios, its roots are Byzantine, or is it? Are we not aware that the music of today's Church in Russia was heavily influenced under the reign of Peter the Great by the Polish-Ukrainian composers of the 17<sup>th</sup> Century followed by the Italian-style choral polyphony of the 18<sup>th</sup> and 19<sup>th</sup> Centuries?<a name="_ftnref3" href="#_ftn3">[3]</a></p>
<p>Is the Byzantine music that we sing today really Byzantine, i.e. from the Byzantine era of the 4<sup>th</sup> through the 15<sup>th</sup> Centuries?<a name="_ftnref4" href="#_ftn4">[4]</a> Are we not aware that the Church music of the See of Constantinople was heavily influenced by the demands of the Turks after the fall of the empire in 1453 AD? Are we aware that the authentic music of the Byzantine Church lost its diatonic character and accepted enharmonic and chromatic intervals during this period of the Turkish yoke?<a name="_ftnref5" href="#_ftn5">[5]</a> Are we aware that the music of today's churches in the Byzantine tradition throughout the entire Mediterranean region of the world is the result of the codification of these oriental elements by Chrysanthus in the 19<sup>th</sup> Century and is scarcely 200 years old?<a name="_ftnref6" href="#_ftn6">[6]</a></p>
<p>Why is it necessary to point out all these things? Is it to shock us or to scandalize us? Absolutely not. Rather, it is important to note that the Church has always accepted certain cultural adaptations of its music in order to minister to the faithful, to further the spread of the Gospel and to continue to baptize the culture in which it finds itself, and in order to continue living in the renewal of the Holy Spirit in the Church.</p>
<p>Again, it is important to ask, what is "Orthodox" Church music? Is it simply music that is contrasted in its sound and use in worship to Roman Catholic music, Episcopalian music, Baptist music, or Mega Church Music? Are we simply another denomination with our own brand of Church music to be used as a kind of badge or nametag so people know who we are, so that we can simply distinguish (or denominate) ourselves from others who call themselves Christian?</p>
<p>In the 4<sup>th</sup> Century, St. Ambrose of Milan, whom we commemorate on December 7<sup>th</sup>, wrote countless hymns in Latin, rhymed and metered in long meter.<a name="_ftnref7" href="#_ftn7">[7]</a> Are these hymns Orthodox? If we are referring to their theological content and use in true prayer and spiritual ascent in worship, the answer is a resounding YES. If however, we say that they are not Orthodox because he lived in Italy or was a bishop in the See of Rome, we are sadly mistaken.</p>
<p>Rome was Orthodox in the 4<sup>th</sup> Century and St. Ambrose is our saint, and his writings and hymns belong to the body Patristic literature handed down to us through the ages. Obviously his hymns are not prescribed for us to sing in our services since they are not found in our Typikon or in our hymnals; nevertheless, this example is used to challenge our perspective in terms of how we use the word "Orthodox".</p>
<p>Orthodox music is not defined by its nationalistic culture or geographical origin. Neither is it defined simply in denominational (i.e. prejudicial) terms. The one, holy catholic and apostolic Church is not a denomination.</p>
<p>Orthodox Church music is that music which raises the eyes of our hearts to see the True Light. Orthodox Church music lifts up our hearts to receive the Heavenly Spirit and discover the true faith as we worship the undivided Trinity in the Kingdom of God not of this world. Orthodox Church Music, authentic Church music as such, transcends all cultural and denominational expressions and labels.</p>
<p>Some may negatively assume that such a proposal must necessarily lead to the development of an American Orthodox music, which will sound like Protestant music or the 70's rock and roll Christian music of the baby boomer generation's surfer churches. On the contrary, we are hinting at the development of authentic sacred music for the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church in North America, a music founded on "that which has been delivered to us", but which is also the result of our interaction as Orthodox Christians with the surrounding American culture.</p>
<p>Others may say that western music lacks that "mystical" quality of the eastern musical tradition, which is so important to our worship. We should be reminded once again, however, that Orthodoxy couldn't be defined in geographical terms. The Orthodox Faith and worship is not trapped in its architecture, music or iconography in the eastern hemisphere. If it is trapped, then we need to free it from its bonds.</p>
<p>It is therefore incumbent upon us, here today at this Conference on Missions and Evangelism to struggle with these issues, to humble ourselves before God, to lay down the sword used to attack our own and to raise it up instead, against the Devil. So, who is the Devil? Any person who disagrees with me? Let's hope not. The Devil is the one who would foil our mission to bring America to it's true spiritual home in the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church.</p>
<p>We need to band together as a family, as brothers and sisters in Christ for the great challenge ahead of us. We need to encourage those among us whom God has gifted with music to exercise and multiply their talents for the spread of the Gospel in this nation. In order to do this, we need to look at the progress that has already been made, follow in those footsteps, and then forge ahead where the need is felt and the Spirit of God leads.</p>
<p>A path has already been cut by Orthodox American musical pioneers such as the Priest Michael G.H. Gelsinger, Professor Michael Hilko, the Archpriest James Meena, Frederick Karam, Basil Kazan, Raymond George, the Archpriest Antony Bassoline, the priest Sergei Glagolev, the priests Vladimir and Igor Soroka. These and many others have taken English translations of our hymns and set them to traditional old country melodies, transposed the Byzantine notation into western musical notation, (i.e., five lines and four spaces) and harmonized Byzantine melodies. Some composers have even produced new melodies that do not belong to any 8-tone system, but are somehow reminiscent of the long-standing "Church sound", i.e., the sound of heaven.</p>
<p>So, where do we go from here? This question is being posed fundamentally to the composers and arrangers of music for the Church. What is the next step? The answer that came to me from Fr. John Namie of blessed memory will surprise you. He said to me,&nbsp; "Fast and pray. If you fast and pray, just as the iconographer fasts and prays before he or she produces an icon, you will produce music that we can use to pray."</p>
<p>So, we must become spiritual musicians, a holy people, and a people after God's own heart. The King of Rock and the King of Pop will not likely produce the music for our prayer, but musicians who pray will produce music for prayer.</p>
<p>Our objective is not to save our kids with musical cultural relevancy, although we want our kids to be saved. But children respond to spiritual authenticity and repel hypocrisy. If we as musicians don't pray, if our only experience of church is Sunday Divine Liturgy, if we don't understand the liturgical cycles and structure of the services Vespers, Matins, Holy Week, major feasts and such, we may produce American music for the Church, but will it be Orthodox sacred music for prayer in America?</p>
<p>In addition, we need to continue working on the translations of our texts into English, and improve on existing ones.<a name="_ftnref8" href="#_ftn8">[8]</a> We should continue the work of transcribing Byzantine notation into modern western linear notation and adopt modern western scale intervals.<a name="_ftnref9" href="#_ftn9">[9]</a> We need to simplify the melodies in connection with the texts and encourage congregational participation.<a name="_ftnref10" href="#_ftn10">[10]</a> We should encourage the harmonization of the melodies.<a name="_ftnref11" href="#_ftn11">[11]</a> I have heard it said that the great musical contribution of the East is its melodies and the great contribution of the West is its development of harmony. What better place than America to bring these two great traditions together to form something uniquely American in terms of Orthodox Music? This, of course, has already been done in Russia, and will undoubtedly be a powerful influence on what is done in America in this area of musical development.</p>
<p>Finally, we need to work on a blend of musical renderings by clergy, cantors, choir and congregation, but not exclusively any one of these. The congregation should sing the responses, acclamations, and dialogues, but the fixed and variable sung hymnody and psalmody should include this blend described above.</p>
<p>In conclusion, I would like to thank the Department of Missions and Evangelism and the Department of Sacred Music of the Antiochian Archdiocese of North America for sponsoring this weekend entitled The Gospel in Song: Music, Missions and Evangelism. My prayer today, is that the leadership of these departments will rediscover that artistic path which has already been cut for us, and organize the construction of a musical, architectural and iconographic superhighway that will allow all Americans seeking the true faith, to make their journey home to the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. Amen.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<hr size="1" />
<p><a name="_ftn1" href="#_ftnref1">[1]</a> "Another obvious point that stands out in this biblical vision of history is that the transfiguring power of the New Creation is explained not by the past, but be the future. It is clear&nbsp; that the action of the living God can only be transfiguring and creative. But the marvel of God who revealed himself in Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is that His creative act comes from the future; it is prophetic. God "comes" into the world; He is before us, and we go out to meet Him who calls us, who quickens us, who sends us out, who makes us grow, and who liberates us." Patriarch Ignatius IV, <span style="text-decoration: underline;">The Resurrection and Modern Man</span>, p.32</p>
<p><a name="_ftn2" href="#_ftnref2">[2]</a> the Orthodox missionaries realized they were not entering a spiritual vacuum as they arrived from Siberia. The inua as the inner life-force of every creature did exist, according to Christian doctrine, but not conceptualized in exactly the same way as the traditional Alaskans had conceived of it. The intrinsic link between the visible and spiritual worlds also existed, the created universe being God's self-expression, a sign of His love. The ambivalence an Artic hunting society "naturally" felt toward their prey and their attempts at stabilizing and purifying their relationship with the creatures on whose deaths their lives depended were readily intelligible from the Orthodox theological perspective. The intimate relationship between the name and the person in traditional Alaskan cultures echoed an ancient biblical theme. What the mission came to contribute was the personal identity of the One who is <em>the</em> inua of all things: Jesus Christ. As the Way, the Truth, and the Life, He also liberates humanity from biological determinism, abolishing the terrifying sense of instability and defilement traditional peoples have always known. Without destroying their positive reverence for life, the mission set the whale hunters free, nourishing them, in the Eucharist with Living Bread and Living Water." Michael Oleska, ed., <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Alaskan Missionary Spirituality</span>, p.29</p>
<p><a name="_ftn3" href="#_ftnref3">[3]</a> <em>The period of Polish-Ukrainian influence, </em>marked by the florid, often poly-choral "part" style, as well as the simpler "kant" style inspired by the Protestant chorale. This period extends from the second half of the seventeenth century to the mid-eighteenth or slightly later. Johann von Gardner, <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Russian Church Singing</span> volume 1 <em>translated by Vladimir Morosan, </em>p. 145.<em> The period of Italian influence,</em> especially Italian-style choral polyphony. This period was relatively brief, lasting from the middle of the eighteenth through the first third of the nineteenth century. Ibid. p 145.</p>
<p><a name="_ftn4" href="#_ftnref4">[4]</a> The modern system is radically different from the medieval system. Medieval Byzantine Chant is wholly diatonic. Oliver Strunk, <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Essays on Music in the Byzantine World</span>, p16. It can be played with sufficient accuracy on a modern keyboard instrument. H.J.W. Tillyard, <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Byzantine Music and Hymnography</span>, p.44.</p>
<p><a name="_ftn5" href="#_ftnref5">[5]</a> The modern system includes chromatic and enharmonic scales in addition to the diatonic (Savas J. Savas,&nbsp; Byzantine Music Theory and Practice, pp 41-42 [Holy Cross Press edition, 1975]).</p>
<p><a name="_ftn6" href="#_ftnref6">[6]</a> The modern Chrysanthine system developed or was introduced in 1821. The whole fabric is not Greek at all, but Oriental i.e. Arabo-Turkish. H.J.W. Tillyard, <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Byzantine Music and Hymnography</span>, p. 63.</p>
<p><a name="_ftn7" href="#_ftnref7">[7]</a>"</p>
<blockquote><p>Splendor paternae gloriae,<br />De luce lucem proferens,<br />Lux lucis et fons luminis,<br />Dies diem illuminans."<br />- St. Ambrose of Milan</p></blockquote>
<p>An English translation by Robert Bridges:</p>
<blockquote><p>"O splendor of God's glory bright,<br />O Thou that bringest light from light.<br />O Light of light, lights living spring,<br />O Day, all days illumining."</p></blockquote>
<p><a name="_ftn8" href="#_ftnref8">[8]</a> We need to improve existing texts and translate those not presently in English in cooperation with the Department of Liturgics and translation. We should acknowledge the immense work already accomplished by Metropolitan Antony Bashir, Archbishop Samuel David, Isabel Florence Hapgood, Fr. Seraphim Nassar, Fr. Steven Upson and others.</p>
<p><a name="_ftn9" href="#_ftnref9">[9]</a> This will, given time, effectively conform all Byzantine melodies to a diatonic equal-tempered scale. According to Byzantine Musical theorists, Medieval Byzantine Music was wholly diatonic anyway. So this could be construed as a move back toward a more pure form of Byzantine chant rather than a perversion of it.</p>
<p>We should further acknowledge the monumental work of Fr. James Meena, Professor Michael Hilko, Dr. Michael Gelsinger, as well as outspoken advocates of this direction: Fr. Paul Schneirla - 1954, Fr. Michael Simon, Fr. Wakeem Dalack, Miss Barbara Joseph and Peter Michaeledes.</p>
<p><a name="_ftn10" href="#_ftnref10">[10]</a> "Byzantine music will fall into disuse if serious measures are not taken...This is not to say that Byzantine Music in every detail is absolutely adaptable to the current situation of the Church especially in the Diaspora (USA). There will be some modifications necessary." N. Apostola, <span style="text-decoration: underline;">A Guide to the Music of the Eastern Orthodox Church</span>, p. XII</p>
<p>Often manipulating the words to fit the music preserves the melodies. "This is not good Byzantine Music. In Byzantine Music the words are primary. If a hymn does not make sense in the language in which it is being sung, then it does not matter how beautiful the melody is. The music is there to serve the words; the words do not serve the music. This is theology, not simply 'taste"! The human person is first 'logical' or 'rational' being created in the image and likeness of God. The words of the hymn are the means by which we contemplate God, pray to God, and learn about God. The music is but a 'skin' if you will, surrounding the words of the hymn. Unfortunately, creating both the best translations of the hymns and the most effective melody for the hymn requires generations of effort." Ibid, p XIII</p>
<p>This task will require a great deal of study on the part of composers and arrangers of Byzantine Music. A knowledge of the basic melodic characteristics of each tone is required, as well as a knowledge of the particular version of a tone with respect to the particular type of hymn being set. i.e. which hymns use the fast, slow, or papadica version of each tone.</p>
<p><a name="_ftn11" href="#_ftnref11">[11]</a> We should acknowledge Fr. James Meena, Dr. Frederich Karam, and Mr. Raymond George for their pioneering work in this area.</p>
<p>"The problems involved in preparing such music are many. Ancient Byzantine melodies do not lend themselves easily to harmonization, however, contemporary Byzantine melodies have been strongly influenced by other cultures and, more and more, the perceptive ear can discover a definite modal harmony suggested by the melodic line. Although this is not true in all cases, it appears often enough to lend conviction to such a theory.</p>
<p>"Further, it is my contention that Byzantine Chant as it is known today, can be harmonized in most cases, while characteristics of the mode are still preserved. We must understand that some melodic freedom will be lost in harmonization, but that that loss can be justified by the use of rich, (and discreet) harmony.</p>
<p>"...I do not wish to imply that I have solved the problem of harmony as related to Byzantine Chant. Rather it is my sincere hope that this is a step in the right direction. May future generations evolve a more satisfactory system." - Fr. James Meena</p>
articlefr john finleymusicFri, 09 Apr 2010 20:26:03 +0000afrishman22682 at http://antiochian.orgThe Ministry of Church Singershttp://antiochian.org/node/22680
<!--paging_filter--><p><em>The following article is taken from the newsletter </em>PSALM: Pan-Orthodox Society for the Advancement of Liturgical Music,<em> Spring 1996, written by His Grace Bishop BASIL.</em><em> For more information on PSALM, please go to <a href="http://www.orthodoxpsalm.org/">www.orthodoxpsalm.org</a> .</em></p>
<p>There are few ministries of the Church that require the devotion and the dedication that church singing does. You who lead the singing as well as you who follow the leader are precious gifts to your parishes. You are as important to the parish as is the holy table itself. As there can be no liturgy without the holy table, there can be no liturgy without you. This is not to compliment you or increase your pride, but rather to put a little fear and awe in you, so you know what your responsibilities are. Church singing is not a hobby. Being a choir director is not something one does for personal fulfillment. It is first and foremost a duty, a duty of those to whom God has given musical talents. It is sinful, in my opinion, for someone not to sing who has been given the gift to sing. Sinful! You join the angels, and do that which the angels do perpetually. That’s not an interest, avocation, or a hobby; it is a duty. Angels were created to serve and to praise, and you have been given voices for that same purpose.</p>
<p>I love to remind our church singers of the fact that we physically jump into something that goes on perpetually. We jump in and join with the angels for a couple of hours, and then we jump back out. The liturgy does not begin with “Blessed is the Kingdom” and your “Amen,” and it doesn’t end with “Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers” and your “Amen.” Those phrases only define the time that we participate in the liturgy which goes on perpetually before the throne of God.</p>
<p>We’ve been told that singers should listen to each other for a good blend. The tenors should listen to each other, and then the tenors should listen to the sopranos. The sopranos ought to listen to the altos, etc., etc. That’s fine for the street. For the church singer it is not the tenor, alto, or soprano who stands next to you we need to listen to, but the angels who lead us in our singing. Those are the voices we need to hear and with which we blend our voices. What can sound beautiful to us can sound like cacophony at the throne of God, if we are not singing with the angels.</p>
<p>St. John Chrysostom tells us that while the priesthood is something that takes place here on earth, and is an ordinance established here on earth, yet it is something that is super-heaven, because the priest and the deacon do that which angels dare not do. The angels stand in awe, not at the priest or bishop or deacon, but at what they’ve been permitted to do by God’s grace. If John Chrysostom wrote a book on choirs, as he did on the priesthood, I’m sure he would say that while being a choir member, cantor, or reader is something earthly, it is also something heavenly. That the angels stand there, perhaps not in awe, but at least with a little bit of jealousy, because you who are flesh and blood have been called upon to serve in the same ministry that they have been created for.</p>
<p>It’s a holiness. It’s not your ministry. It’s a ministry that belongs to the Church, and you respond to the call as well as recognize that the gift which you specifically fulfill in the church was, traditionally, and in some sense still is, an ordained ministry. The choir was not some club that existed in Church for those with some particular musical talent. To be a church singer was an ordained office within the Church. Canon 15, from the Council of Nicea, the Council of the 4th century, makes its point clear that only canonical singers should be appointed for that kind of ministry in the Church. That means "one set apart" for that particular ministry. Today we might call them Readers. While I’m not saying that every choir member must be a tonsured Reader, I do say that if we fulfill at least the spirit, if not the law of the Canon, that each choir member ought to see his/her participation in the choir as seriously as the ordained clergy take their ministry. I don’t know any priest who thinks that he can say on some Sunday, “I don’t want to serve because I want to sit with my wife,” or, “I don’t feel like serving today,” or, “I’m angry, one of the altar boys offended me, so I don’t want to serve this morning.”</p>
<p>As seriously as the ordained clergy need to take their ordination, so you ought to as church singers. Canonically, they are an order of the Church, to begin with. I’m not proposing that we fulfill the letter of the law by having you all ordained, but I think we ought to at least incarnate the spirit of the law, which implies a great responsibility, a great sense of duty and a privilege that is given to him or her as a church singer. This, then, should create in all of us, whether or not we are ordained clergy, a real sense of humility. We should give thanks that God has been pleased to call us who were created from the dust of this earth to participate in the heavenly liturgy and to offer up praises with His angels to join the perpetual hymn of “Holy, holy, holy.”</p>
<p>We jump in and we jump out. Some of us jump in on time and some of us jump in a little bit late. In my opinion, being in church for that first “Amen” is a sign, an indication of one’s humility. And where humility is, indeed, a virtue, its opposite is a sin. The sin is not disturbing other people. The other people in the church are not the object of our worship. It is rude, but not necessarily sinful, to disturb other people. But it is sinful to be presumptuous and prideful that one can jump in and sing with thousands of archangels and ten-thousands of angels at one’s own whim. “This Sunday I feel like singing, and next Sunday I won’t sing. I want to sit with my wife.” Leave that Hallmark—card kind of sentimentality for restaurants, concerts, and cinemas. You sing with angels, that’s secondary to sitting with any husband or wife or children. We stand before the throne of God, and when we realize that, every other consideration, all of our own personal likes and dislikes, become secondary. I’m giving my opinion now, and hopefully it humbles all of us. It’s a humiliation, that in its end, should be something that elevates us, that exalts us, something that gives us wing.</p>
<p>Now, I would like to share with you some of the writings of the Fathers of the Church, and some homilies on the canons about chanting in Church.</p>
<p>The choir leads the congregation in prayer. The invitation to prayer is put out by the deacon or archdeacon. The deacon invites prayer, but the choir leads the congregation in the prayer itself. First I will share the words of St. Meletios the Confessor. He says:</p>
<blockquote><p>“Prayer with musical chants and melodies, loudly voiced tumult and shouting is heard by men; but before God our Maker, the prayer which proceeds from a man’s conscience and God-imbued intellect stands before God as a welcome guest, while the former is cast out.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There are choirs which make “loudly voiced tumult and shouting.” Yet I do not wish to imply, and I know that St. Meletios does not imply, that aesthetic beauty is the only criterion for chanting. Here is a little story. Once upon a time there was a Monastery of St. George, and the Abbott was blessed with monks that did not have such wonderful voices. The annual pilgrimage on the Feast Day of St. George was not all that impressive with the rather awful sounds coming from the choir. So the Abbott called together all the monks and said, “Look this year I am going to invite the famous choir from the cathedral for the Feast.” Word went out and thousands of people came to St. George Monastery for the feast day and it was a glorious day. The famous choir from the cathedral was in great form and used its best voices. The Abbott was thrilled and even the humble monks who were not allowed to sing that day were thrilled. Following the day’s festivities the monks went off to sleep, and the Abbott was sound asleep after all the excitement of the day. St. George came to him in his sleep and said, “Father, I think you missed my feast day! Today is my feast day and here you are, you didn’t do anything. Have I not blessed you this past year?” And the Abbott said, “Oh, Saint George, I do not know where you were, but we had a glorious feast today. How could you not be here?” St. George said, “I was in the church and I saw a great multitude of people, but I heard nothing.”</p>
<p>You and your choir need be as aesthetically perfect as you are able. God not only expects, but He accepts only our best. If your best sounds like “a loudly voiced tumult and shouting.” but it is indeed your best, then God hears you, and St. George does too.</p>
<p>Here is a quote from St. Anatoloy Zertsaley of Optina, written to a new choir member:</p>
<blockquote><p>“The fact that you have started to chant is not important. The roosters out on the farm sing like anything. They will drown you out right away. But you are not a rooster, and you are not a hen. You have to remember that your singing should not be like that of a rooster, but like that of angels, that is done, with humility, fear, ardent love, and self reproach. Such is true and God-pleasing chanting. But the vainglorious kind, designed to please not God but men, is worse than those of roosters. And this is precisely what you did not specify for me, that is, whom did you come closer to in imitating, when you chant, the angels or a hen?”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>St. Simon the founder of Simones Petras Monastery on Mt. Athos says that “at the church services we should chant with solemnity and devoutness, and not with disorderly vociferation.”</p>
<p>And St. Nikodemos of the Holy Mountain counsels us, saying,</p>
<blockquote><p>"The psalmody which takes place in the church is an entreaty to God. Now he who makes an entreaty and prays must be in a state of humility and contrition. Whereas an unduly loud voice manifest audacity and irreverence. One of the techniques that many chanters and choirs use is attempting to interpret to the congregation what the text means. Very loud at one point and very soft at another point, then slow, then fast. That is as artificial as controlling the emotions of those who stand in our churches by dimming the lights or turning them on bright. Your task is to sing, not to interpret. The Holy Spirit is the One who will lead us into the knowledge of all truth, not the choir director or the chanter. Again, he who prays must be in a state of humility of contrition.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>According to Saint Nikodemos, a sign of humility and contrition is that one does not chant or pray with an “unduly loud voice” interpreting the text. He says, “Chanters should psalmodize in a reverent and orderly manner, with fear of God and piety and contrition.”</p>
<p>"Pray gently and calmly. Sing with understanding and rhythm. Then you will soar like a young eagle, high in the heavens," wrote St. Evagrios.</p>
<blockquote><p>“He, the church singer, should chant without hurrying and without dragging, and he should pronounce the words clearly and distinctly. He should chant simply and reverently in a monotone, without expressing his feelings by modulations and changes of voice. Let us leave the holy prayers to act on the listeners by their own spiritual power. The desire to convey to the bystanders one’s own feelings is a sign of vanity and pride.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>St. Ignatius Brianchaninov continues, “The singing should be begun and ended all together. Moreover, the hands should not be waved in a distracting manner.” You should not do in the choir loft or the choir area, that which you would not do in the sanctuary. “The hands should not be waved in a distracting manner, and on no account should there be any moving around. The members should go in order quietly, one after the other, without pushing or hurrying one another.”</p>
<p>St. Elias the Presbyter counsels us, saying, “When through continuous prayer the words of the psalms and hymns are brought down into the heart, then the heart like good soil begins to produce by itself, various flowers: roses, the vision of the incorporeal realities; lilies, the luminosity of corporeal realities; and violets, the many judgments of God, difficult to understand.” There are the gifts, the graces that come to the church singer who sings with humility and contrition, who leaves aside his or her own personality and idiosyncrasies.</p>
<p>If indeed we are singing with the angels, listening to their voices and melodizing with them, then we know that the responsibility for conveying the import of the text does not rest upon our shoulders at all. That is not to say that we can mumble. The Fathers that we have heard say that we should chant with understanding, distinctly and clearly. But we do that because we wish to show respect to the text, not because we are trying to tell the congregation what the hymn is about. We are not there in positions of teachers, the Church says. We show respect to the text, not to the hearer. Our first concern is the text, the holiness of the words themselves. And if we do that the hearers will hear. They will be given all the tools necessary to understand the mysteries which are encompassed in the holiness of the text. And yes, the words are holy. And the sheets of paper that have music on them are holy, just as holy as a paper icon. Words have power. And “The Word” is the title given to the Son of God Himself. The words and the music both have power. They have a holiness. The spoken word is a gift given to us, and given to none of God’s other creatures. And it is a gift that we must perfect, the gift of speech, the gift of communication, and the gift of music. It is a gift that we perfect and offer back to God as a spotless sacrifice and a pure offering, to our God who gave us the gift of words and music to begin with.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<hr />
<p><strong>Q:</strong> <em>Should the first antiphon and cherubic hymn be sung in the same manner?</em></p>
<p><strong>A: </strong>That is a good question, but I will speak about the interior attitude in the church singer. The music need be tasteful, beautiful and non-intrusive, so the liturgy flows. And again the flow is important, not so much because a break in the flow would be disruptive to those who hear, but that it would be cacophony at the throne of God. The object of our worship is not the congregation but God Himself, and we do things well for Him. Everyone else may benefit, but they cannot be and must not be our consideration. Our consideration is that we offer God our best. That means: the best in sound, the best in taste (which may vary a lot, but that is fine.)</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<hr />
<p><strong>Q:</strong> <em>What about dynamics and choral interpretation?</em></p>
<p><strong>A:</strong> If they are done to make things more beautiful and not merely to express your own personal taste, then they are fine. There are some things that just naturally take a crescendo. It comes from the text in music that is well written. Where the music and the text marry, they are not obtrusive to each other. If they are a loving couple, the music does not need much external “mood setting.” It does it by itself, especially if one chants with understanding and contrition. Submit yourselves to the text. Choir singers submit yourselves to the director. Directors submit yourselves and the choir to the text.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<hr />
<p><strong>Q:</strong> <em>How do we find the balance between wanting it to be beautiful, but not going overboard?</em></p>
<p><strong>A:</strong> What is one’s motivation for doing it? When I was at a monastery on Mt. Athos, they had no choir. But they had a chanter that was out of this world. It was a three hour Orthros with a one hour Liturgy and Fr. Theodore had been chanting for four hours. It was gorgeous. He had the most beautiful church voice; it wasn’t some ‘Frank Sinatra’ voice. We’ve got plenty of those. I mentioned to one of the monks afterwards how blessed the monastery is to have Fr. Theodore. He said, “excuse me, but he distracts us from our worship. We would start saying, ‘That was beautiful,’” What is our best and what is beautiful? Our best must be objectively discerned. Beauty is subjective to taste. That’s a way out of not answering the question, but I really don’t know how to answer it.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<hr />
<p><strong>Q:</strong> <em>How can we hear the voice of the angels?</em></p>
<p><strong>A:</strong> That is not a hard thing to answer, but it is a hard thing to do. The way that we may hear them is to become childlike when we stand before God. Children can hear angels speak. Children see angels, and that is how we are told to be, like little children. Too often rather than being childlike, we become childish. To become childlike is to be innocent, to stand before God in the spirit of humility, and contrition, laying aside our own likes and dislikes, and our personality, if you will. Age or education does not necessarily mean that you cannot be childlike anymore.</p>
<p>There is a young man whom I have known since he was a teenager. He went on to law school and is now a very successful attorney. When he was about twenty-seven we met at a church gathering, and he asked if he could spend some time with me alone. We went off to the side, and he said, “you know, Fr. Basil, I am very disturbed because I do not see my angel anymore. I used to see my guardian angel by my bed every night. And I do not see him anymore, not for the past three months.” Here is a young man who, despite his sophistication, maintained his childlike innocence, when it came to things of God, until he was twenty-seven. Then something happened. What was especially beautiful about his attitude was his naiveté. For twenty-seven years, he believed that everyone must, like him, see his guardian angel. He did not think that it was anything unusual. What he thought unusual was that he was not seeing it anymore!</p>
<p>We can see the angels if we live with them, if we attune our ears to their voices, and focus our eyes on seeing them. They are there. Just because we do not see them, or do not hear them, does not mean they are not there.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<hr />
<p>Here is a canon that deals with church singing and church singers. It is from the 75th Canon of the Council in Trullo that took place in the 7th century (691-692):</p>
<blockquote><p>“We wish those who attend church for the purpose of chanting neither to employ disorderly cries and to force nature to cry out loud, nor to introduce anything that is not becoming and proper to a church; but on the contrary, to offer such psalmodies with much attentiveness and contriteness to God, Who sees directly into everything that is hidden from our sight. For the sons of Israel shall be reverent (Lev.15:30), the sacred word has taught us.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There is that word again, contriteness or contrition. Either humility or contrition has come up in almost every quote. Not only the ones that I am presenting, but all the ones I could find, from the Holy Fathers and from the canons. At our rehearsals, and our sessions with choirs, we talk about promptness, generally, and about dedication, both of which are important; but we need also speak about humility and contrition. If we take a poll of the Fathers those are the two characteristics that seem to be most important for church singers. Humility and contrition. They did not say anything about a beautiful voice. Did you notice that? It has to be orderly; it has to start together and stop together. That is a good thing for choirs. Blend your voices, another good and very practical thing. But sing with humility and contrition, that is the most important thing.</p>
<p>Now about forcing nature, here is a famous commentary on Canon 75:</p>
<blockquote><p>“The chanting, or psalmody, that is done in churches is in the nature of begging God to be appeased for our sins. Whoever begs and prayerfully supplicates must have a humble and contrite manner. But to cry out manifests a manner that is audacious and irreverent. On this account, the canon commands that those who chant in the churches refrain from forcing their nature to yell, but also from saying anything else that is unsuitable for the Church. But what are the things that are unsuitable for the Church? The expositor Senoras replies that there are womanist members and warblers (which is the same as saying trills and an excessive variation or modulation in melodies which inclines towards the songs sung by harlots). The present canon, therefore, commands that all these things be eliminated from the Church, and that those who chant therein shall offer their psalmodies in great care to God, Who looks into the hidden recesses of the heart, into the psalmody and prayer that are framed mentally in the heart rather than uttered in external cries. The sacred words of Leviticus teach us, ‘sons of Israel,’ to be reverent before God. That is why divine Chrysostom says that these things (meaningless utterances, singing words that either make no sense, or singing without understanding) are natural, not to those who are engaged in doxologizing God, but to those playing, and mingling the sport of demons with angelic doxology. By means of many arguments he, Chrysostom, teaches that we ought to offer up doxologies to God with fear and a contrite heart, in order that they may be welcome, like fragrant incense.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The common thread that runs through these quotes is the need for humility and contrition. To be humble will be a struggle. We cannot buy humility; we cannot merely appear to be contrite. Humility and contrition are states of the heart and soul, that then manifest themselves in the behavior of body and attitude, and words, and psalmody. They are things that we need to work on individually. There is no choir practice to rehearse humility. I wish we could! We cannot have a rehearsal for joint contriteness. When choir members come together in individual humility and individual contriteness, we offer up corporate doxology that He hears and that St. George would hear. Something that is an acceptable sacrifice, an acceptable oblation before the throne of God. Brothers and sisters, you have been gifted by God with an angelic gift. Using your voices for His praise is a gift given to you and not to everyone. It is a gift given to you but a gift which you share with the angels and the archangels. Make yourself worthy, by His grace, of that gift, and be worthy of the calling to which you have been called. Not to lead the congregation in prayer; that is secondary. Not to make a beautiful atmosphere for liturgy; that is tertiary, way down the list. But to offer up acceptable glorification before the throne of God, an oblation that He will receive upon His heavenly and ideal altar. An oblation then, like our oblation of bread and wine, which He will in turn offer back to us. When He accepts your offering, He does not keep it. He will take it, transform it, and send it back to touch the hearts, and the minds and the souls of you and your congregants. He will do that. You do not have to worry about doing it. If He can make bread into Flesh and wine into Blood, know that He can make your psalmody into an instrument of the Spirit, which can lead you and your fellow congregants closer to Him. Let Him be the only object of your worship, the only object of your praise, the only object of your glory. Then you cannot help but be humble and contrite, standing and considering and seeing only Him.</p>
articlebishop basilmusicFri, 09 Apr 2010 19:42:20 +0000afrishman22680 at http://antiochian.orgSt. Romanos the Melodisthttp://antiochian.org/node/22677
<!--paging_filter--><p><a class="img-left" href="http://www.antiochian.org/StRomanosIcon"><img src="/sites/default/files/assets/asset_manager/128.jpg" alt="" align="left" border="0" /></a><strong>Saint Romanos the Melodist, A Syrian Poet</strong><br /><em>Michael G. Farrow, Ph.D.<br />Vice Chairman, Dept. Sacred Music</em></p>
<p>“The hymnologists of the Orthodox Church are Christians of virtue and great faith, having been endowed with musical talent as well as the power of religious inspiration. Their creations have enriched our worship services and have helped turn our souls towards God. Perhaps the greatest of all hymnologists is St. Romanos the Melodist. Many other hymnologists have written ecclesiastical hymns, but none of them inspired the Christians as much as St. Romanos.” This statement, issued by the National Forum of Greek Orthodox Church Musicians concisely states the reverence, appreciation and feeling <em>all </em>Orthodox Christians have for St. Romanos.</p>
<p><strong>Romanos’ Background</strong></p>
<p>Romanos a Syrian Christian, born in Edessa (Homs), Syria, lived in the beginning of the 6th century. Relying on scanty information about Romanos’ life, and based on the fact that his work contains a large segment of Semitic expressions, the fact that he never attacks Jews, and on a later anonymous kontakion stating that as “God’s Orator” he is “from the race of Hebrews”, it is generally thought by most scholars that he was a convert from Judaism. However, other scholars (R.J. Schork, 1995) believe that this may not be true. Schork states that his Semitic expressions are similar to those prevalent in the Syriac Christianity of that period, his anti-Jewish polemic such as “lawless one” in his hymns of passion week may be due to prejudice or the exaggerated zeal of a recent convert, and the fact that the “Hebrew” reference in the later kontakion merely refers to the fact that he was non-Greek or a Syrian. Topping states that although a late tradition makes him a Jew and a convert, it is more likely that he belonged to a Christian family of Semitic origin.</p>
<p>Romanos was ordained a deacon and served in the Church of the Resurrection in Berytus (Beirut). Most sources agree that he went to Constantinople during the reign of the Emperor Anastasius I (491-518).</p>
<p><strong>Church Legend</strong></p>
<p>Church legend has it that during this time, Romanos’ voice was quite harsh and rasping and he was also tone deaf. It is said that the congregation cringed at hearing his voice. It was in the Church of the Most Holy Theotokos in the Blachernae quarter of Constantinople, that he received the gift of sacred poetry. After a religious retreat there, in his sleep on Christmas eve, he saw a vision of the Most Holy Theotokos who told him not to despair. Blessing him with her right hand, she held forth a scroll with her left hand, saying, <em>“Take the scroll and eat it.”</em> The saint, in his dream, opened his mouth and swallowed the parchment. It was Christmas Day, and immediately he awakened and marveled and glorified God. According to an account by Poulos, the service commenced as usual and when it came time for the voice of Romanos to be heard, the participants braced themselves for the accustomed cacophony that would ensue. Then, mounting the pulpit in the church, Romanos began the strains of his kontakion: <em>Today the Virgin gives birth to the one who is above all living things.</em> But when the tone rolled across the church like the sound of a heavenly angel, the stunned listeners stood transfixed. When he had finished, the confused priest signaled him to continue and once again the resonant voice reverberated in the house of God. Then it dawned on one and all that a miracle had occurred. He was now hailed as the “Melodist.”</p>
<p><strong>Hymn Writing</strong></p>
<p>His talent was great. Unlike others, he wrote his hymns in simple language and produced a pleasant meter in the verse by the way he accented words. Most scholars agree that he wrote in the colloquial idiom (common language) of his time. The hymns he composed appealed to the hearts of the people, and are still sung today. Romanos has been called "Sweet Singer" (Glykophonos), "Melodist" (Melodos), and "Righteous Chanter" (Psaltis Dhikeosinis). There is no evidence that he was ever ordained to the priesthood or served in a monastery or ever held an official appointment in the Emperor’s court.</p>
<p><strong>Kontakia-Style Hymns</strong></p>
<p>Romanos wrote many hymns celebrating the mystery of the Incarnation, the Passion, the Resurrection, and the living of a Christian life. Until the 12th century his Christmas Kontakion was performed by a double choir (from Hagia Sophia and the Church of the Holy Apostles) at the Imperial banquet on that feast day.</p>
<p>Kontakia consist of 25 strophes (troparia), usually of 21 verses each, with a refrain. Dramatic and pathetic dialogue play a great part in the structure. Romanos’ works are essentially long metrical homilies, arranged in stanza form, set to music and designed to be sung after the reading of the scriptures as part of the morning prayers. They were most probably chanted in urban churches and not monasteries, and are essentially sung sermons. The Greek word for this type of literary form is <em>kontakion </em>derived from the Greek word <em>kontax</em>, the rod or staff around which the parchment scroll containing the text was originally wound. The works are a metrical scheme in which there is a pattern of conforming stressed and unstressed syllables in each line. This pattern of stress is determined by the pronounced and written accent. Classical poets like St. Gregory of Nazianzus who composed the Presanctified Liturgy based their writings on the <em>quantity </em>of time (long or short) needed to pronounce each syllable.</p>
<p>There is no complete edition of Romanos’ kontakia. Although the <em>Synaxarion </em>states that Romanos wrote “more than a thousand” hymns, Toppings feels that this is an exaggeration, a metaphor for the poet’s generous gift of hymnody to the church. Some 59 genuine hymns have been identified from medieval Byzantium, the remaining being lost. Unfortunately none of the music accompanying them survives. His most famous kontakia are those of Christmas, Pascha, and the Passion. St. Romanos is also said to have composed the <em>Akathistos Hymnos</em>, a kontakion which we still chant during the Friday evening services of Great Lent.</p>
<p>This literary form reached its highest development in Romanos’ kontakia with their elaborate metrical system and vigourous dialogues. Unfortunately the form degenerated in the following centuries. Romanos borrows heavily from earlier Greek sermons and other sources, though it is not certain whether he also depends on St. Ephram the Syrian. His masterpieces presented dignified diction and elaborate metrical patterns. He aimed not only to preach but to please. He seemed to be well trained before arriving in Constantinople and probably was well educated in one of the last schools of rhetoric still flourishing in 6th century Syria.</p>
<p><strong>Romanos' Death</strong></p>
<p>Romanos died in peace on October 1st and is buried in the Church of the Theotokos, in Constantinople, where his feast is still celebrated. The exact year of his death is not precisely known. Many scholars set it as 555 AD, based on an Imperial document of 551 and his apparent mention of violent earthquakes that shook the Near East in 552, 554, and 555 AD. He was a productive genius and artist, writing and accenting many kontakia. He has been called the patron saint of all who sing for the Church. Others say he is the leader in the world of religious hymnology. Within a few decades after his death, Romanos was canonized and venerated in Byzantium and Armenia and after the 9th century, in Russia. His icon pictures him in the white robes of a young deacon.</p>
<p>The only authority for the life and date of this greatest of Orthodox hymnographers is the account in the Menaion for October (Feast Day, October 1). Beyond the description in the Menaion, there are only two mentions of St. Romanos’ name, one by the 8th Century poet, St. Germanos, and one by Suidas who calls him “Romanos the melode”. None of the Byzantine writers on hymnography allude to him; his fame was practically extinguished by the newer school of hymn-writers which flourished in the 8th and 9th centuries. Krumbacher has made it fairly certain, by a number of critical arguments, that the emperor named in the Menaion as reigning when Romanos came to the capital, Constantinople, is Anastasius I (A.D. 491-518) and not Anastasius II (A.D. 713-716); Pitra and Stevenson are of the same opinion. Probably, then, he lived through the reign of Justinian (A.D. 527-565), who was himself a hymn-writer; this would make Romanos a contemporary with two other Byzantine hymnographers, Anastasios and Kyriakos.</p>
<p>“In poetic talent, fire of inspiration, depth of feeling, and elevation of language, he far surpasses all the other melodists. The literary history of the future will perhaps acclaim Romanos for the greatest ecclesiastical poet of all ages”, say Krumbacher. All the other critics of Byzantine poetry subscribe to his enthusiastic praise.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<hr />
<p><em>The following primary and secondary sources were used for this article:</em></p>
<p>Phillimore, J.S., transcribed by Herman F. Holbrook in <em>The Catholic Encyclopedia</em>, Vol. XIII, Robert Appleton CO., p. 154 (1912) which cites the following references:</p>
<p>Bouvy, <em>Poetes et Melodes</em> (Nimes, 1886)</p>
<p>Idem, <em>Studien zu Romanos</em> (Munich, 1899)</p>
<p>Idem, <em>Umarbeitung bei Romanos</em> (Munich, 1899)</p>
<p>Pitra, <em>Hymnographie de l’Eglise grecque</em> (Rome 1867)</p>
<p>Jacobi, <em>Zur Geschichte des griechischen Kirchen liedes in Briegers Zeitschrift fur Kirchengeschichte</em> (1882), V, 177-250)</p>
<p>Krumbacher, <em>Gesch d. byz. Literatur</em>, Munich 312-318</p>
<p>Poulos, George, <em>Orthodox Saints: Spiritual Profiles for Modern Man</em>, Oct 1 to December 31, Holy Cross Orthodox Press, Brookline, MA (1992)</p>
<p>Mitsaki, K., <em>The language of Romanos the Melodist</em>, C.H. Beck’she Verlagsbuchhandlung (Munich, 1967)</p>
<p>National Forum of Greek Orthodox Musicians (no date)</p>
<p>Schork, R.J., <em>Sacred Song from the Byzantine Pulpit: Romanos the Melodist</em>, University Press of Florida (1995)</p>
<p>Topping, Eva C., <em>St. Romanos the Melodos: Prince of Byzantine Poets</em>, Greek Orthodox Theological Review, 24:65-75, Spring, (1979)</p>
articlehistorymusicsaintsst romanosFri, 09 Apr 2010 19:14:12 +0000afrishman22677 at http://antiochian.org